The Creator Spoke. I was there.

Robert Jordan was the Guest of Honor at Balticon XXX, April 5-7, 1996.
During the convention, he participated in a few discussion panels,
answered questions at book-signings, gave a (short) speech as Guest
of Honor, and read a passage (less than a chapter, I think) from
A Crown of Swords. This page summarizes what Jordan said at
the convention.

The free availability of The Strike at Shayol Ghul on the Web
makes this summary rather superfluous (I wrote it when Strike was
only available in printed form, in very limited quantity) but I'm
keeping it here for completeness. Now on with my summary.

In "The Strike at Shayol Ghul", Jordan describes the events leading up
to the Sealing of the Bore from the perspective of a Third Age historian
(at about the time of the story) who discovered some fragmented
manuscripts that were written shortly after the Breaking. The single
biggest fact revealed is that the during the War of the Shadow, the
Aes Sedai were considering two alternate plans for defeating the
Dark One.

Lews Therin proposed that the Dark One be resealed in his prison by
plugging the Bore. The plug would be inserted by 13 linked male and
female channelers and would be held in place by the 7 Seals, which were
focus points of the weaving. 20,000 soldiers would accompany them
to Shayol Ghul, where the Bore could most be sensed. Lews Therin's
plan had supporters and opponents. Opponents argued that the Seals
required precise positioning, and that any slight error would tear the
Bore open wider.

The alternate plan, which also had its share of supporters and
detractors, was to build two large sa'angreal (one for saidin, one for
saidar) and use them to build a new prison around the old one for the
DO. The sa'angreal were so powerful that special "key" ter'angreal
had to be constructed for channelers to use them safely. Opponents
of this plan expressed concern that the sa'angreal could fall into
the control of channelers following the Shadow or be misused accidentally
by channelers serving the Light. Either way, the sa'angreal were expected
to be powerful enough to destroy the world and beyond. Opponents also
worried that while the sa'angreal might enable the building of a wall
strong enough to contain the Dark One's strength right then, the DO
was gradually chipping away at the Bore and gaining more power in the
world. At some point, he might become powerful enough to tear down
the new wall.

Supporters of each plan began preparation, even though the Aes Sedai
as a whole failed to reach a consensus.

Latra Posae, an outspoken female Aes Sedai, considered LTT's plan so
dangerous that she organized support amongst the female AS against it.
In fact, she obtained the unanimous agreement of every female AS of
significant power -- in other words, every female AS who could possibly
be asked to assist in the force that would place the 7 Seals into the
Bore to seal it shut. They believed this effectively halted Lews Therin's
plan, as the men who supported him could not link without any
cooperating women. (It was believed that correct placement of the seals
required a linked group of the most powerful male and female channelers.)

While the Aes Sedai were fighting over which plan should be used, the
Shadow advanced rapidly. Lews Therin decided that something _had_ to be
done right away, so he covertly organized 113 male channelers who
supported his plan (they were later called the Hundred Companions, a
slight miscount) and over 10,000 soldiers who were also loyal to him.
The force stormed Shayol Ghul, when all 13 Forsaken were there, and
put the Seals into place.

At the moment of the resealing, the Dark One drove all of the surviving
Hundred Companions (about 68, at that point) instantly insane. The DO also
tainted Saidin, although this wasn't discovered until after hundreds
of other male channelers had been driven mad from it.

Reads the introduction of the manuscript: "Whoever reads this, if any
remain to read it, weep for us who have no more tears. Pray for us
who are damned alive."